1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of Internet-based communications and, more particularly, to a method for taking customer orders using a customized single screen for the input of required ordering data.
2. Description of Prior Art
The explosive growth of the Internet as a publication and interactive communication platform has created an electronic environment that is changing the way business is transacted. Companies often build websites to take orders from customers over the Internet. Many such order-taking systems however, do not save information associated with a specific user for use in enhancing the order taking process. Systems without saved information, typically require the user to select their desired items from a menu or catalog that is the same for all users.
Often data required to fulfill an order for items, such as goods or services, cannot be fully determined until the user selects the desired items for the specific order. Some electronic ordering systems require preliminary data be provided in order to select the appropriate items to be displayed on the ordering menu or catalog. These systems however often result in having the user enter too much or too little information before selecting items to be displayed. Systems requiring preliminary data prior to display of the ordering menu or catalog also don't give the user flexibility to use different data for a field that is common across items, such as last name wherein the user might want to user maiden name to fulfill one service such as college degree verification, but not for the other service such as a credit check.
Many ordering systems use a separate screen to enter data associated with each item to be acquired. This delays the ordering process, as it requires data to be transmitted back and forth across the Internet to generate a new screen for each item. The transmission interval results in a direct delay in the time it takes the user to enter an order, and an indirect delay as it interrupts continuity in the user data entry process.
A number of innovations have been proposed to overcome the above deficiencies and improve the ordering process.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,261 presents a method to store information associated with a users activity and actively modifies each browsing experience according to that user's browsing history. While this system can present the user with more appropriate navigation choices, it neither presents a menu of items for order, nor bypasses a menu to display of the data entry screen for the item or items to be ordered.
An electronic ordering process, which employs a user profile to suggest items for purchase that are most likely to be of interest to the user, is described in US Patent Application 20030037041. While this process reduces the number of items offered for selection by the user, product selection is still required before display of the data entry screen for the item or items to be ordered.
US Patent Application 20050091156 identifies a method to correlate content to present to a user with demographic and psychographic data it previously stored for that user. This method can improve the users experience, but it does not let the user select the products and/or services that they want displayed. This process also requires product selection before display of the data entry screen for the product to be ordered.
US Patent Application 20050204276 consists of a framework that uses questionnaires and other methods to gather preference information about a customer, and uses that information to adjust the offer it makes to that customer. This is time consuming for the customer and frequently does not adequately reflect the future needs of the customer for items. The framework also does not directly let customers select the products and/or services that they want displayed. This process also requires product selection by the customer before display of the data entry screen for the product to be ordered.
US Patent Application 20040268228 provides a framework that simplifies the development of customizable web pages. The framework described in this patent application did reduce the development effort to develop many web applications, but it did not introduce new simplifications to the order entry process.
An additional complexity of taking customer orders occurs after items are identified, and specific data are either required or just useful to fulfill the order. Both the “required” data and the “useful” data typically are intermingled on the data entry screen, with the “required” data differentiated graphically via an asterisk or other notation. This intermingling of “required” and “useful” data adds burden and delay to the users that want to enter only the required data.
Inefficiencies further exist in the order entry process, when different items have data requirements for the same field types. In such cases, the user usually wants to use the same data for the same field type of each item, but occasionally needs to use different data. Re-entering the same data for a subsequent number of items is time consuming and burdensome.
US Patent Application Sheth 2002/0195028 provides a framework that for users to add items called monitors to a web page. These monitors are separate elements. Insufficiencies exist in the lack of a process to determine if duplicate data exists across these items, and to prioritize presentation attributes for entering the data based on the data needs of the individual items. Such a process reduces the information needed to be entered and optimizes the data entry process. Furthermore, inefficiencies exist in not eliminating presenting the items themselves the data entry process so the user can just provide the reduced information without being burdened by the items. Furthermore, inefficiencies exist in that the burden of selecting an optimal arrangement of the data entry elements must be done by the user and is only available to the user via the items themselves and not the data entry elements, as opposed to the system making determinations of optimal presentation based on prioritizing the data entry elements presentation attributes.